In order to improve vehicle structural integrity, high-strength impact beams constructed of steel or other suitable impact-resistant material can be integrated into a vehicle body, for example by welding the impact beam into a door assembly. However, there is ordinarily a very limited amount of available space between an outer panel of the door assembly and any window glass and any internal mechanisms of the door assembly when the window glass is in a dropped position. As a result, there are limited options for integrating an impact beam within a vehicle door assembly, as well as a limited number of useful configurations of the impact beam itself.
Additionally, in order to achieve ever increasing fuel economy standards, the reduction of weight and mass of modern vehicles is typically an overarching design goal. It is therefore common practice to use aluminum, magnesium, and/or composite materials in constructing vehicle bodies and components. While such light-weight materials are desirable from a vehicle mass reduction standpoint, packaging space limitations as noted above can limit the effectiveness of impact beams constructed from such materials, which often must be enlarged in order to provide strength that is equal to that of an impact beam constructed of a high-strength material such as steel.